Everything about Juliana Hatfield totally explained
Juliana Hatfield (born
July 27,
1967 in
Wiscasset,
Maine,
United States), is an American
guitarist/
singer-songwriter from the
Boston area, formerly of the
indie rock band
Blake Babies.
Background
The daughter of Philip M. Hatfield (a radiologist) and
The Boston Globe fashion critic Julie Hatfield, Juliana was born in Maine and grew up in the Boston suburb of
Duxbury. She acquired a love of rock music during the 1970s, having been introduced by a babysitter to the music of the important Los Angeles
punk rock band
X, which proved a life-changing experience
(External Link
). She was also attracted to the music of more mainstream artists like
Olivia Newton-John (External Link) and
The Police (External Link), perhaps explaining the in her later music between sweet, melodic "
pop" songs and more
hard rock oriented material. Visualizing herself as a singer since her high school years, Hatfield sang in school choirs and briefly played in a cover band called The Squids, which played
Queen and
Rush songs
(External Link).
Blake Babies
Following her graduation from
Duxbury High School, where she was voted "Most Individualistic"
(External Link), Hatfield attended
Boston University for a semester. She then transferred as a piano student to the
Berklee College of Music in Boston, in the hope of finding a band with which to sing
(External Link). There she soon met Freda Boner (now
Freda Love) and
John Strohm, forming the
Blake Babies with them in
1986, at the age of 19. The band, with which she sang and played
bass guitar (as well as some guitar and piano), was signed to North Carolina's
Mammoth Records and received a fair amount of airplay on
college radio through the early 1990s. The group toured the United States several times, performed in Europe, and made several music videos. Hatfield eventually earned a degree in songwriting from Berklee.
Although Hatfield shared vocal duties with Strohm in the group, she quickly stood out due to her unique vocal quality; her somewhat thin, girlish voice gave the group a youthful, innocent sound that was nevertheless belied by often-caustic lyrics and a vocal delivery punctuated frequently by harsh, distorted screams (in live performances more so than on recordings). Although the group's early work was essentially
punk-oriented, they quickly settled into a sunny, melodic, and slightly jangly pop style reminiscent in style of early
R.E.M. and
Neil Young. Hatfield and Strohm shared songwriting credits and often sang together in harmony or octaves, creating a memorable "boy-girl" sound rarely encountered in rock (except in the work of X and a few later indie bands as
Velocity Girl,
Hazel,
Quasi,
Low,
Mates of State, and
Rainer Maria).
The group formally disbanded in
1991 but, largely due to the persistent efforts of Freda, reunited briefly in late
1999, performing a few shows in 1999 and
2000 and embarking on one last U.S. tour in
2001. Coinciding with the tour The
Blake Babies recorded and released a new album titled
God Bless The Blake Babies which received strong reviews. The album featured new original songs as well as renditions of songs by
Ben Lee and
Madder Rose. Frequent collaborator
Evan Dando also made a guest appearance on the album. After the tour Hatfield released a
Blake Babies EP titled
Epilogue at her live shows featuring the band covering
Fleetwood Mac,
The Ramones and
MC5.
Solo career
Hatfield began her solo career following the
Blake Babies' breakup in
1991, releasing her first solo album (
Hey Babe) in
1992. The album was one of the highest selling independent albums of 1992. Hatfield recruited a rhythm section comprised of former Moving Targets and Bullet LaVolta drummer Todd Phillips, and Thudpucker bassist Dean Fisher, and thus becoming The Juliana Hatfield Three.
Hatfield achieved alterna-rock stardom with the release of 1993's
Become What You Are (recorded under the group name The Juliana Hatfield Three). Several songs from the album received regular airplay on major North American rock stations, with Hatfield's song "My Sister" becoming the biggest hit of her career with the video becoming an MTV staple. Another one of her songs ("Spin the Bottle") was used in the soundtrack of the
Hollywood film
Reality Bites (1994). Hatfield also made the cover of
Spin magazine. Hatfield's popularity coincided with the success, in the mid-1990s, of many other female alternative rock musicians. Although she's always maintained that her gender is of only incidental importance to her music, Hatfield was pleased to have been invited, in
1997, to tour with the first
Lilith Fair, a prominent all-female rock festival founded by singer
Sarah McLachlan.
(External Link) Hatfield was profiled in a number of girls' magazines at this time and was embraced by many pre-teen and teenage girls as a role model due to the positive way she addressed serious issues faced by young women in her songs and interviews. About this period she says: "I was never comfortable with the attention. I thought it had come too soon. I hadn’t earned it yet."
(External Link) She gained notoriety in 1992 for saying that she was still a virgin in her mid-twenties in
Interview magazine. In a 1994 interview for the magazine Vox she said she was surprised by the effect 'outing' herself had: "I think there are a lot of people out there who don't care about sex, but who you never hear from, so I thought I should say it. The magazine I did the interview for is full of beef-cake hunky guys and scantily-clad models, so I thought it would be really funny to say that I didn't care about sex in a magazine that's full of sex and beauty - but no one really got the joke."
(External Link)
In 1995, following the success of
Become What You Are she released her followup album,
Only Everything, in which she "turned up the volume and the distortion and had a lot of fun".
(External Link) One reviewer describes it as "a fun, engaging pop album".
(External Link) The album spawned another alternative radio hit for Hatfield in
Universal Heart-Beat. The video featured Hatfield as an overly demanding aerobics instructor. Prior to the tour for 'Only Everything', Hatfield released Phillips and brought on Jason Sutter (American Hi-Fi, Chris Cornell, Jack Drag), as well as Ed Slanker (Thudpucker, Tinsel) on 2nd guitar, and Lisa Mednick on keyboards. Two weeks into the tour, Hatfield canceled the tour citing exhaustion, and took a month long break. The drummer was, once again, replaced, this time by Phillips, and touring resumed with Jeff Buckley as the opening act.
In
1996 she traveled to
Woodstock,
New York where she recorded tracks for
God's Foot, which was to be her fourth solo album (third if not counting
Become What You Are, which was recorded with the Juliana Hatfield Three), intended for
1997 release. After three failed attempts to satisfy requests from Atlantic Records to come up with a "single" that the label could release, Juliana requested she be released from her contract. The label obliged, but kept the rights to the songs produced during these sessions (Atlantic had reportedly paid $180,000 to that point on the recordings).
(External Link) Two tracks -- "Mountains of Love" and "Fade Away" -- were eventually released on a greatest hits collection entitled
Gold Stars, while still another, "Can't Kill Myself," was available for download from Juliana's official website. The remaining tracks have surfaced only as substandard bootleg versions (which don't meet Hatfield's approval) and she's rarely featured them in her subsequent live performances.
Following the traumatic experiences surrounding
God's Foot, and now freed from her major label obligations, Juliana recorded a six song EP for indie label
Bar/None in 1997 titled
Please Do Not Disturb. Produced by Hatfield herself, the album featured several different musicians, including drummer Todd Phillips, guitarists Ed Slanker and Mike Leahy, and new bass player Mikey Welsh (Weezer) among others. The EP features a particularly tender song, "Trying Not To Think About It," which is a tribute to the deceased musician
Jeff Buckley who was a friend of Hatfield's.
Almost as a reaction to the seemingly endless studio sessions surrounding
God's Foot, Hatfield recorded the album
Bed in 1998 in six days, about which she says on her website: "It sounds as raw as I felt. It has no pretty sheen. The mistakes and unattractive parts were left in, not erased. Just like my career. Just like life."
(External Link)
In 2000, she released
Beautiful Creature, an album which was among the most critically well-received of her career.
(External Link) This album left the rockier side of Hatfield's musical personality unexpressed, however, so at the same time she also recorded with Zephan Courtney and Mikey Welsh, which she describes as "a loud release of tension", with "lots of long sloppy guitar solos. And no love songs...a not-at-all attractive reaction to the ugly side of humanity, specifically American culture."
(External Link) The two albums were initially released in a set as a pair. was however received very badly by the critics.
(External Link), who much preferred the acoustic songwriting on
Beautiful Creature. On
Beautiful Creature Hatfield worked with Austin-based musician
Davíd Garza who co-produced much of the album. Wally Gagel a producer for
Sebadoh and
Tanya Donelly helped Hatfield record her most electronica influenced songs "Cool Rock Boy" and "Don't Rush Me" which added texture to the otherwise acoustic album.
2002 saw the release of Hatfield's first "best-of" album. The album, titled, featured the singles from her solo albums. It also contained two of the songs from the previously unreleased
God's Foot, a cover of
Neil Young's
Only Love Can Break Your Heart, as well as four new recordings.
In 2004 Hatfield released
In Exile Deo, which was arguably an attempt at a more commercial sound, with input from producers and engineers who'd worked with Pink and Avril Lavigne. Hatfield did, however, produce the album herself with David Leonard receiving co-production credits on "Jamie's In Town" and the bright rocker "Sunshine." The critics loved it, with a couple calling it her best work since the start of her solo career.
(External Link)
By contrast, the 2005 album
Made in China was released on her own new record label,
Ye Olde Records, and has a much rawer feel.
John Doe of the band X described the disc as "A frighteningly dark & beautiful record filled w/ stark, angular, truly brutal songs & guitars. This is surely a 'Woman Under the Influence', though I'm not sure of what."
(External Link) Reviews were very mixed, with some liking the lo-fi sound, but others seeing it as slackness.
(External Link)
In December 2005 Hatfield toured the United States with the band
X, whom she idolized during her teenage years.
2006, Hatfield released her first live album. Titled, the album featured performances from her tour with
X. This was Hatfield's third release for her record label.
Rumors are already buzzing around www.julianahatfield.com's message board about Hatfield's next album. One rumor is that
The Psychedelic Furs vocalist
Richard Butler will make an appearance. Another rumor is that
Andy Chase of the band
Ivy will be producing the record to give Hatfield a fresh sound.
The official word has just been given that the new album,
How To Walk Away, is due for a August 19, 2008 release date. The album will be released on Hatfield's own Ye Olde Records label.
Style and influences
From her work with the Blake Babies to the present, Hatfield's output has been characterized by an alternation between heavy, rocking tunes and songs written in a gentler, more melodic or folk-oriented style. Hatfield has stated that in the 1990s she tried smoking cigarettes for a short time in the hope of giving her voice a rougher quality, but eventually reconciled herself with her distinctive vocal instrument
(External Link). A survey of her releases shows her voice to be remarkably agile, with little vibrato but capable of both forcefulness and sensitivity, making it well suited to the
multitracked vocal harmonies that feature prominently on most of her albums. Christina Kelly wrote in
Sassy Magazine that Hatfield's frail girlish voice "gives hope to everyone
trying to sing."
Hatfield's musical influences are diverse, ranging from punk groups like X,
The Stooges, the
MC5, and
The Replacements to more folk-oriented rock artists like
Neil Young, whose songs the Blake Babies frequently covered in live shows. Her work has also cross-fertilized with some other contemporaneous
indie rock bands such as
Dinosaur Jr and
Lemonheads, whose musicians are also friends of Hatfield's. From an early age, she's also had a special love for pretty-sounding
pop music. In a 1998 interview, she stated, "I just always liked pop music and really good melodies and major chords. That's just the type of music that comes naturally to me"
(External Link). In a 1993 interview in
Melody Maker magazine, Hatfield stated that her enthusiasm for the music of the pop group
Wilson Phillips apparently led, at least in part, to the breakup of the Blake Babies
(External Link).
Hatfield has been based in the northeastern United States for most of her life, although she tried living for a short time (
1999) in
Los Angeles, an experience that left her disenchanted with that city's scene, which she found artificial and soulless.
Lyrics
Although Hatfield's lyrics are often autobiographical, some listeners have sometimes mistakenly interpreted fictional songs as representing her own experience. Her "My Sister"--one of her best known songs--is not about a real sister; Hatfield doesn't have one. The song, however, comes across as convincing because other details (including the mention of her first rock concert, featuring the
Violent Femmes and the
The Del Fuegos) are real events from her life. A recurrent theme in her songs has been a skewering of figures in society that she finds ridiculous: self-important men ("I'm Not Your Mother"), groupies ("Rider"), fashion models ("Supermodel"), and men who make tragic fashion choices ("Leather Pants"). Other songs have dealt with more serious issues such as body image ("Ugly" and "Feed Me") as well as the failure to connect fully with other people or achieve meaningful and lasting relationships ("How Would You Know" and "Perfection"). Some of her songs deal more or less explicitly with her anger towards people she sees as not taking responsibility for their actions ("Stay Awake
", several of the songs from the album "Total System Failure", notably "The Victim"). A few songs ("Let's Blow it All," "Give Me Some of That") are more lighthearted in tone. Her quieter, more acoustic songs often deal with relationships ("When You Loved Me") and particular places ("Trying Not To Think About It"). Sometimes they've a wistful melancholy, a sense of struggling to carry on, trying to find some meaning in life ("Backseat", "Feelin' Massachusetts"). Since the mid-1990s songs such as "Sellout" have dealt in a more or less overtly sarcastic way with the demands the music industry places on artists (particularly female ones) in order to ensure their "success."
Although much of Hatfield's output is exuberant and hard-rocking, Hatfield nonetheless describes herself as very shy and somewhat of a loner, and has said that "happy lyrics don't come naturally to me"
(External Link). She has also described her music and songwriting as a form of therapy, an outlet that helps her to overcome rough periods and depression
(External Link).
Instruments
The guitar (both electric and acoustic) is Hatfield's primary instrument, and she's a highly proficient technician, her work often featuring alternate tunings and intricate, unusual voicings executed high up on the neck. She hasn't received as much acknowledgement for her imaginative bass playing, which can be best heard on the Blake Babies albums
Earwig and
Sunburn as well as throughout the Lemonheads'
It's A Shame About Ray. Unusually for the instrument, she plays melodically and harmonically rather than simply holding down a bass line; she often plays on two strings simultaneously, using expressive sliding tones on the upper string to add another melodic voice to the group's sound. Since her work with the Blake Babies she's gravitated more towards the guitar and has largely lost interest in the bass, generally assigning parts for the instrument to other band members, and not playing as melodically when overdubbing with it in recordings. She has periodically also played
piano,
electric piano, and
organ on her releases, and on her most recent disc,
Made in China (2005), she played drums for the first time.
Collaborations
Hatfield has also performed with the
Lemonheads, even living for a time with
Evan Dando in the college
student ghetto neighborhood of
Allston in Boston, and contributed backing vocals to recordings by
Belly,
Giant Sand,
Susanna Hoffs,
Aimee Mann, and
Mary Lou Lord. She teamed up with Dando in 1999 to record
Gram Parsons's song "$1,000 Wedding" on the various artists' compilation, .
In 2001, she joined with Freda Love and
Heidi Gluck (of
The Pieces and
The Only Children) to form the trio
Some Girls, with which she performs in addition to her solo work; the group has toured the United States twice and has released two albums. The trio is another outlet for Hatfield's more lighthearted material. Their first album, entitled
Feel It, was released by
Koch Records in 2003. The lead single "Necessito" is a funky affirmation of the power of music, sung in a mixture of English and Spanish. Some Girls' second album,
Crushing Love, was released in July 2006.
In 2007 Hatfield signed the Boston (now
Austin)-based band
Frank Smith to her record label, Ye Olde Records. Along with releasing their 2007 album
Heavy Handed Peace and Love Hatfield also recorded an EP with the band titled
Sittin' In A Tree. The EP, produced by
Frank Smith's
Aaron Sinclair, features
banjos,
pedal steel, and other instruments normally associated with
country music.
Outside projects
Beyond her musical accomplishments, Juliana has also
guest-starred on several
television shows, including
The Adventures of Pete & Pete as a
lunch lady and on the
cult classic My So-Called Life's Christmas episode as the ghost of a deceased homeless girl. During the mid-1990s she was a staple on
MTV's
120 Minutes alternative music program, and she performed on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien in
1995.
Hatfield and Dando are mentioned in the
Barenaked Ladies song "Jane," from their 1994 album
Maybe You Should Drive. In it, the singer claims there's "No Juliana next to my Evan."
On March 25, 2008, Hatfield began her own blog through her website *
(External Link) titled An Arm and A Leg. Each week she reveals the influences behind one of her songs.
Partial discography
With the Blake Babies
1987 – Nicely, Nicely (Chewbud Records)
1989 – Earwig
1989 – Slow Learner (Utility Records)
1990 – Sunburn
1991 – Rosy Jack World (EP)
1993 – Innocence & Experience
2001 – God Bless The Blake Babies
2002 – Epilogue (EP)
With Some Girls
2003 - Feel It
2006 - Crushing Love
With Frank Smith
2007 - Sittin' In A Tree (EP)
Film soundtracks featuring songs by Juliana Hatfield
1992 - Fathers And Sons: song "Yeh, Yeh"
1994 - Reality Bites: song "Spin The Bottle"
1995 - My So-Called Life (TV series): song "Make It Home"
1996 - The Craft: song "Witches' Song"
1998 - Urban Legend: song "Trying Not To Think About It"
2000 - Condo Painting: song "Harder and Deeper"
Compilations
1995 - Saturday Morning: song, a duet with Tanya Donelly "Josie and The Pussycats"
1995 - Volume 13: The Lucky Issue: song "Waves"
1997 - Kerouac- Kicks Joy Darkness: song "Silly Goofball Pomes"
1999 - Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons: song, a duet with Evan Dando "$1,000 Wedding"
2005 - Too Many Years (benefiting Clear Path International's work with landmine survivors)(External Link): song "Going Nowhere"
2006 - Big Star Small World: song "Don't Lie to Me"
2008 - The Green Owl Compilation: song "Back To Freedom"
Further Information
Get more info on 'Juliana Hatfield'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://juliana_hatfield.totallyexplained.com">Juliana Hatfield Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
